


i dream of you and we talk of growing old

by stargazingcafe



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Childhood Friends, Growing Up, M/M, it’s a ship fic but ofc can be read as a friendship one!, they’re supposed to be in italy at the end btw lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 16:31:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15666996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stargazingcafe/pseuds/stargazingcafe
Summary: junhui wakes up and he’s fifteen years old. minghao is lying next to him with his heart in his hands, and he’s fourteen.





	i dream of you and we talk of growing old

**Author's Note:**

> best read listening to slide away, by oasis.

_i dream of you and we talk of growing old_

 

junhui wakes up and he’s fifteen years old. minghao is lying next to him with his heart in his hands, and he’s fourteen. 

he was awake first, the older knows, because he’s staring at the other side of the room, quiet and wide-eyed and staring, staring, staring. _wondering where the world is,_ he told junhui once. 

(they were thirteen and twelve, and he asked junhui if he thought he was weird. junhui replied with _i think the world is asleep, and that’s why we’re still here._

minghao was tired of their hometown that year. but when he heard junhui, he nodded and never brought it up again.) 

junhui stares at the other side of the room as well. and he wonders where the world is, so that he doesn’t doze off back to sleep. minghao must notice, because he looks up at him slightly and bumps his head against his forehead. then he scrunches his nose and junhui looks at him too because minghao only ever scrunches his nose to get the other to look at him. he should be embarrassed because of it, but he’s not. 

“we’re the same, right?” he asks, “you and i?”

“uh, yeah, i think,” junhui replies.

“you’re lying. i like black but you like green. and you don’t want to get that piercing when you turn eighteen but when you turn sixteen. i want it when i’m eighteen.”

he did lie. minghao does like black and he does want a cartilage piercing when he’s eighteen, because he’s full of tranquility and patience, but junhui needs to get things done as soon as he comes up with them because he doesn’t want them getting dusty and old.

“well. 

we’re not the same but we’re here, right?”

and minghao thinks _yes, this is a mind we share._

/

junhui closes his biology textbook and he’s twenty years old. minghao’s humming in front of the mirror with the music at his tongue and he’s nineteen. 

he has a performance in a week. junhui has a test in three days, and he’s studying just now, mind alternating between the water cycle and minghao’s spins. he gets reprimanded every now and then but it’s not his fault that the younger is sweaty and jumpy right before him.

he promised to pay him coffee for the next month if he did good in his performance, but minghao threw a stack of paper to his head and told him to keep his nasty money because he was going to pay him breakfast when he got an A on the test.

_when._

he’s nowhere near when, but if. in any case, minghao is blindly trusting him and he has no other choice but to holds his book tight and cram the words inside of his head. he’s been doing this for around an hour, and so far he only knows the photosynthesis formula which he remembers from high school and won’t even appear in the test.

the bed sinks beside him and suddenly minghao’s face is there.

“do you think we can ever do something other than studying and sleeping and dancing?” he asks with a tone in his voice that gives it away as a held back idea.

“how so?”

“i mean- instead of staying inside this fragment of our lives, do you think we’ll be able to be other people? or to be somewhere else? or to be other people somewhere else?”

junhui is not surprised that minghao is articulating himself this way; if the younger doesn’t have a question the size of an elephant to throw out there, then is his holographic clone talking to him and the real minghao has finally disappeared among doubt and the glittering specs of existentialism and existence. because he’s very aware of himself and of the fact that the universe doesn’t control him, but that he controls himself inside of an universe that has placed him somewhere of unknown location and unknown role in the hierarchy of the cosmos and that as far as the grand scheme of things go, he must solve out his own living independently from the universe’s.

(the piercing thing is past now; junhui did get his the day he turned sixteen, and minghao got his just last year,

but they still wonder where the world is and whether it is still asleep.

junhui said _maybe,_ and because minghao hated him for it, he added

_okay but how do we know if we’re getting old when we don’t even know if we keep growing after death? do we even really die? what_ is _death?_

it gave minghao something to think about. they were seventeen and sixteen.)

“yeah. this is college, hao. we have plenty of time to slip away, it not like this is _it._ ”

and minghao believes him because they’re not the same and they can manage to stay together they way they have all this time.

maybe they’re two of a kind.

//

junhui stops mid step and he’s twenty three years old. he’s looking back at minghao, who’s looking up at a balcony carrying a weeping soul and he’s twenty two.

it’s not a majestic wonder, but it’s a fading brown structure and it has flowers growing straight out of the wood. minghao likes things like these; junhui wants to get to the museum as soon as they can because he likes things like those.

he tugs at minghao’s sleeve and the other looks at him with this sleepy life inside of his eyes before strolling along with him. 

“is it wrong that i’m happier here then i ever was there?” he bursts out as soon as they get to the museum.

“ah?”

but junhui understands. he’s seen kid minghao, teenage minghao, adult minghao, and he’s seen the stare that never stops getting old with the waiting and the longing; it’s come all this way with him, with his years, and this is the only time he’s seen it getting any younger.

( _hao, who do you want to be when you grow up?_

they were home from school, after a day of being interrogated on their dream professions as adults and their desires as “builders of society.” everyone had raised their hands and said things like “firefighter, cop, doctor, engineer, architect” and some other that went along the lines of businessman. 

but junhui and minghao had stayed silent. they left the building with a note from their teacher to their parents, who were under the duty of explaining them their role in their community and the importance of the path they decided to take. they were reluctant, of course, and when they were asked the next day, they left without say anything. 

the teacher let it pass. 

-but then they were on the sidewalk, trying to keep their balance on the edges, and minghao replied 

_more._

then he asked junhui and he said

_better._

they were eight and seven.)

“is it?” he presses

“no. it’s fine. i feel happier too.”

he’s not lying this time. they’re twenty-three and twenty-two, and the only thing they’d repeat is seeing each other grow up. 

///

and they don’t know where the world is but they’re together in it. so it must be somewhere magical.

////

junhui blinks and he’s fifteen. minghao is lying next to him with his heart in his hands, and he’s fourteen. 

junhui has just stopped talking. minghao stares at him from his spot in the bed, head still touching the other’s forehead, and he knows what’ll come next.

 

_but you said please don’t._

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first work of mine that I ever dare to put out here, and I just hope it’s good enough.
> 
> if you understood how the lyrics and the story came together, please let me know! i’d love all of you for it ♡.


End file.
